Sub menu

Adrien, Lindsey Set to Open Unique Business Market in JP

When rents get to a point of putting business out of business, the answer could be to collaborate.

David Lindsey (Tipping Cow Ice Cream), Gerly Adrien (Tipping Cow Ice Cream), Javier Amador Pena (El Colombiana Coffee) and Kelsey Munger (Lavender Bee Baking Co.) have pooled their resources and will open the first shared small business space in Jamaica Plain. It will be known at Monumental Market – replacing the former Monumental Cupcakes space on Centre/South Streets.

That’s exactly the answer
that Everett’s Gerly Adrien and her fiancée, David Lindsey, arrived at this
year when they were looking to expand their nut-free ice cream business,
Tipping Cow in Somerville – landing with two friendly business partners in what
is the first shared business space in Boston.

The venture will be known at
Monumental Market, and will be located on JP’s busy Centre/South Streets
corridor. Adrien said they hope to open on May 1.

“Our goal since we bought
Tipping Cow last year was to expand soon to another location,” she said. “We
looked in Everett, but it was way too expensive. So, we started looking in
Boston neighborhoods because retail space was a little less. We knew someone
who was looking to sell their business in JP, and we bought her out.”

That was the long-standing
Monumental Cupcakes in JP, but the story didn’t end there.

For their ice cream, they
had been working with a nut-free bakery, and that owner was looking for a
permanent spot after spending much time at Farmer’s Markets. That was Kelsey
Munger of Lavender Bee Baking Company, and she also brought to the table Javier
Amador Pena, of El Colombiana Coffee.

Immediately, the three began
meeting to see if they could work together and cut costs, while also offering
an exciting, community-oriented space.

“We are basically three
businesses partnering up because the rent in Boston is very high,” she said.
“We have been meeting every week since December to see what a partnership will
look like at the market…We were already buying baked goods from Kelsey. She
started out at Farmer’s Markets. Javier also does Farmer’s Markets and knew
Kelsey from that circuit. Both were looking for a space at the same time we
were…If you meet us, our businesses are community-driven and we all really want
to run a space where the community can come together.”

Working with the Jamaica
Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), they were able to iron out
all the details and make sure the licenses would work and the legalities were
straightened out.

“We want to be the first to
do this, so we wanted to make sure to do it right,” said Adrien.

The way it will work is that
all three businesses will have a separate area where they will sell their
products within the space. However, there will be one point of sale. So, a
customer could get a cup of coffee from Colombiana, and an ice cream cone from
Tipping Cow, and check out with a worker from Lavender Bee.

While they will certainly
cut costs in sharing the rent, Adrien said they will further cut costs by
sharing workloads and employees. She said she and Lindsey – as well as the
other owners – and the youth employees Tipping Cow has hired, will be
cross-trained for each business and its products.

“We will operate as three
different stores, but where you can buy everything in one smooth transaction,”
she said. “We will split the rent, split the marketing budget and split the
employee expenses. It really helps us to get going and our goal is to grow and
branch out and open another location just like this at some point.”

Adrien, who has run for
public office in Everett twice in recent years, said the new venture in
Somerville with Lindsey has ignited her long-time love of small business and
small, minority-owned businesses.

Growing up in Everett
Square, she said she often loved the diversity of the stores and the fact that
a family could support themselves with a business in the Square.

“I then went to corporate
America and it was a totally different dynamic,” she said. “Black Enterprise
was my favorite magazine growing up. I would read the stories of small,
black-owned businesses and I always wanted to be in the Top 10 list.”

Adrien said they plan to really focus on
employing young people in JP, and they also plan to give a percentage of their
profits back to the community.